


Not Mine

by verumbark



Series: D-End 2 Rescue AU [3]
Category: Zero Escape (Video Games), Zero Escape: Zero Time Dilemma - Fandom
Genre: "ill be fine" he said "i cant shift like you" he said, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Character Interpretation, Gen, LMAO, also!! dw my interp of canon!delta isnt as evil as most of yalls, alternate title: delta repeatedly hecks up, bodyswap with a twist, delta hecked up Real Bad, fucked up time shit, i know for a Fact that not all yall have, i!!!!! made a mistake !!!!! !! but i Fixed it, if you could handle the games you can handle this, implied ships, in spades, no but seriously, phi is Smart, read the first two stories for context regarding this shit, the klims are (probably) ok for now, you can pry this au from my cold dead hands
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-09-13
Updated: 2016-09-20
Packaged: 2018-08-14 20:54:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 9,662
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8028583
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/verumbark/pseuds/verumbark
Summary: It was to be expected, although Delta had tried his best to deny it, that one of them would eventually have to SHIFT away. He'd just never expected that it would be him.





	1. [2028/2040] Different Places

**Author's Note:**

> read the last story first or you wont understand,
> 
> also!! this au branches into multiple timelines so there might be conflicting (and less serious) stories in the future

The sun seemed harsher than usual on that bright December day, and the air was abnormally hot, yet Carlos felt chilled to the bone. His fellow survivors stood behind him, their eyes trained on the gun in his hand. Before him was the man responsible for the unspeakable things they’d endured and “decisions” they had to make in doomed timeline upon timeline. This was the man that had orchestrated the apocalypse. He had chosen Carlos to act as his judge, jury, and executioner, and stated once again that the fate of the world was in his hands. Not a single person present dared make a sound.

Seconds passed, and the old man folded his arms across his chest in a display of cocky impatience. That bastard was just _begging_ to be killed, Carlos thought, but would it really be that easy? If there was one thing experience had taught him about Zero, about Delta, it was that he always had some kind of dirty trick up his sleeve. Even if he did shoot him, would that be the end? What was the outcome he had anticipated and prepared for?

It didn’t matter. Carlos decided that he was past caring about Delta and his twisted mind games. No matter what he had expected, at the end of the day, humanity was safer without him. Nobody would be free from danger as long as he was alive. Swallowing his doubts, he double-checked his aim and steadied his trembling arm. He had made up his mind. Delta acknowledged his decision with a nod and an infuriatingly calm smile.

To everyone’s surprise, though, he fell to the ground before Carlos could pull the trigger.

 

* * *

  

_“I’m… not like you guys. I can’t SHIFT. My consciousness is safe where it is.”_

_“Oh. Well, at least you’re safe.”_

_…_

_“But are you sure? Didn’t you say, um… those two guys… the ice cream man and the serial killer could SHIFT at the end, even though they weren’t Espers? What if something like that happens to you?”_

_There was a long pause as Delta went over his borrowed memories. She was right again. There were situations where his other self could have SHIFTed. But there was no way he would ever let her worry like that. He wouldn’t cross that bridge until he found himself in the heat of the desert sun with Carlos pointing a gun at his head. “No,” he lied with confidence, “that couldn’t have happened to me back there. And there aren’t enough other Espers here for it to happen now. You should be more worried about yourself than me, okay? I know I am.”_

 

* * *

 

The clouds seemed softer than usual on that dark December morning, and the previous night’s chill lingered in the air, yet Phi felt an indescribable inner warmth. She woke up safely under the covers after a night filled with abnormally happy dreams, replaying what her brother had told her over and over in her head to reassure herself that everything was still okay. The bluebird pendant was sitting on the carpet beside her. Its song had long since faded out. She picked it up with a yawn as she climbed out of bed. This was going to be a nice day. She was sure of it.

“Good morning, Phi.”

Delta was standing fully dressed in the doorway with his dull red hair in a ponytail and a genuine smile on his face. Seeing that he was still safe and sound was enough to make her smile too. She greeted him with a little wave. “Hey. Still you in there, right?”

“Yeah. I told you, I’m… staying here no matter what. And I know you’re still you, ‘cause I’ve been checking all night. Uh, Mom sent me to tell you breakfast’s ready.”

“All night? Did you… even get to sleep?”

“Haven’t slept in six days,” he replied as if nothing was wrong, “but I’m still not tired. Might have to do with whatever weird genetic thing let… the other me live to 124 and still be able to walk and stuff.”

Phi decided against saying anything to him about it, despite her concern. He was stubborn when he wanted to be. She’d have to wait until they actually had time to talk. “Mm-hmm. Tell her I’ll be right down.”

“Will do.” He turned around, and as he walked back down the hallway, Phi could have sworn she heard him yawn. Not tired, her ass.

The smell of rich pumpkin batter reached her long before she reached the kitchen. Her parents cheerfully wished her good morning, and she returned their greetings. Everyone seemed calm and generally content with themselves; Sigma was typing away at his computer, and Diana was helping her son spread butter on his second helping of waffles. Phi sat down at the table, remarking that breakfast smelled amazing, and put a pair of waffles on her plate. She was just about to reach for the syrup, but then she remembered she’d left her required reading book in her room, so she stood up again and announced that she would be right back before running off to get it.

When she returned, her brother was unconscious on the kitchen floor.

 

* * *

  

_“We’re going to SHIFT. All of us. Together.”_

_“Hey, hold on! Like, jumping to another history?”_

_“But Eric and I…”_

_“I’m sure it’ll be fine! Remember what I said? Human consciousness may be a result of quantum effects in the brain.”_

_“Oh, yeah. You said if certain conditions are met, we can also…”_

_“What are the conditions?”_

_“First, you need to be exposed to danger… and the other one is--”_

_“To be in the vicinity of a group of SHIFTers.”_

 

* * *

 

The first thing Delta noticed was the blinding intensity of the sun and the scorching sand. He almost felt as if he had caught fire. His glasses had fallen off his face, leaving his sensitive eyes unprotected, and it was hard to see much of anything until he managed to find them and put them back on.

The second thing he noticed was that he was being held at gunpoint by a stranger, and that his powers were failing him.

“Hey--!” The moment he heard himself cry out in alarm, his hands flew up to his own throat. That wasn’t his voice. This wasn’t his body. Panic took hold of him and held him tight, and the headache he’d awoken with grew and developed an agonizing pulse. “What… what the fuck is going on!?”

“I should be asking _you_ that question,” snapped the stranger, eliciting murmurs of assent from the small party behind him. There was a noticeable tinge of fear in his voice, too.

In this state of mind, Delta could barely form a coherent sentence, let alone an answer for the stranger. “I… I don’t know!” he stammered desperately. “Look, listen-- th-this isn’t my body! I don’t know you! I-I mean, I don’t think I do!”

The stranger hesitated for just a second, glancing over his shoulder at the others as if asking for backup or input. “Are you serious?”

“Yes! I’ve… I mean, you look familiar, but I don’t think I--!”

Another stranger, the one with the faded olive-green shirt and the crazed look in his eyes, took a step forward. His arms were at his side and his fists were clenched. “Don’t tell me you actually believe that bullshit, Carlos! He’s fucking lying! He’s got to be!”

Carlos?

_Carlos!?_

It was as if a switch had been flipped inside Delta’s mind. Of course he knew these people. They were his victims, the participants in his Decision Game. They were the ones he’d seen in his parents’ memories. In fact, his parents themselves were standing amongst that small crowd of eight, staring at him with as much uneasiness and disdain as the rest. He clapped a cold hand over his own mouth to stop himself from screaming aloud. This wasn’t his timeline. He wasn’t supposed to be here. He wanted to go back.

Thankfully, Carlos put into words what Delta didn’t know how to say. He glared back at the crazed-looking man – Eric, his name was _Eric_ – and took a deep breath before he spoke. “What reason would he have to lie, huh?”

“So you won’t shoot him! Then he’ll take the gun while you’re not looking and-- and--”

“He wouldn’t have to make me drop my guard first if he wanted to play a trick like that. He could just control my body and make me drop the gun. Right, Delta?” Carlos didn’t wait for an answer, which was good, because Delta was in no state to respond. “Hey, Akane… do you think he might have SHIFTed?”

“It’s a possibility. You _were_ going to shoot him, and we’re all here, so…”

“But, then... what timeline is he from?” Diana chimed in, fidgeting with her necklace. “He’s not acting like himself at all.”

Carlos turned back towards the boy in the old man’s body. “Good question. What timeline are you from?”

When Delta finally managed to open his mouth, still fighting the urge to scream, it wasn’t to answer the question that he hadn’t heard. He had a lot to say, but his vocabulary and his strength were failing him. “I’ve seen you in my nightmares before,” he mumbled, “and in my parents’ nightmares, too. You all… die a lot, and… it’s all my fault.”

Carlos suddenly looked very unsettled. “Your parents? You live with your parents? You mean…”

“Not just my parents. Phi, too. We all live together.” The unintelligible mess of everyone’s racing thoughts began to ring louder in his ears, so he spoke up. “Mom and Dad got rescued from here after they had us.”

“They--!?” The older, white-haired Phi didn’t look like she was having the best time with her own emotions either.

“Yeah. Um, in my timeline… we all survived. All four of us did. We got a house, and Phi’s gonna get a lizard for Christmas, and… oh… we were supposed to go to school this morning. Well… wait, no, actually, this is… in the past. So not this morning, then.”

Phi had started to mirror the firefighter’s expression of concern. “That’s… wait. Did you say ‘school’? How old are you?”

“M-mentally, or…”

“Yeah.”

“Eleven.”

That took a long time to sink in. When the silence was broken, Akane was the one to break it. “So you’re eleven years old and in a body that’s well past a hundred.”

“I… I guess…?”

“And that means that in your own timeline, your eleven-year-old body is being… inhabited… by…” She didn’t seem to realize the weight that statement carried until it was halfway out of her mouth. “... oh, _no_.”

“What? Wh-what’s wrong? You don’t mean…!?”

“The Delta we know… he’s with your family now.”

 

* * *

  

_“Phi.”_

_“Delta…”_

_“You should go to sleep. We have school tomorrow.”_

_Phi shuddered. “But I’m too scared.”_

_Delta let go of her and sat back, his expression back to its usual state of seriousness. He reached for the pendant behind her, then took her hand and placed it in her palm. “Just… listen to the music box. And I’ll stay right next to you. I won’t let anything hurt you.”_

_Phi took the pendant and wound it up as she spoke. “How’ll you do that, though? Can you use those powers to hold my mind down in case it wants to go anywhere?”_

_“I just won’t let anything hurt you. Don’t worry. You’ll be right here when you wake up in the morning.”_

_“If I wake up.” As that familiar song began to play, its simple tune seeming to harmonize with the ticking of the clock, Phi’s body climbed awkwardly back into bed and lay down without the input of her mind. It was a funny feeling to her, but she was glad her brother had enough control over his powers to do something like that without hurting her. That at least put one of her worries to rest._

_“You’ll wake up. I promise,” he whispered. “And you’ll wake up here, in this room, and I’ll be here too. Mom and Dad will be here, and Mom’s making… pumpkin waffles for breakfast. Close your eyes — before I close them for you — and just… try to think about happy things.”_

 

* * *

 

The first thing Delta noticed was the shrill, rattling sound of a child’s scream. There were certainly more pleasant things to wake up to, especially for someone whose skull ached as if it were being assaulted by a thousand jackhammers; needless to say, he didn’t come to his senses in the best of moods.

The second thing he noticed was that the child was Phi, and that although he was in pain, his powers were still working just fine.

“Well, _this_ is--” The sound of that voice, high and scratchy and most decidedly _not his_ , was startling to him at first, but it was sufficient evidence to confirm his suspicions. He had inadvertently SHIFTed because Carlos had made up his mind about shooting him, putting him in immediate life-threatening danger. “So this is how Sigma felt,” he muttered to himself.

It was odd, though; he’d never read a memory of a timeline like this before. Going through the thoughts of everyone in the room let him know just what kind of history he had jumped to. This wasn’t anywhere close to the alpha timeline. This wasn’t even a relevant timeline. He couldn’t help but shudder at the thought of a young, impulsive instance of him running around and causing irreparable damage in a body that wasn’t even his. More worrying to him was the fact that his return was entirely dependent on whether Carlos had pulled the trigger, rendering that body and therefore that timeline inaccessible, and what kinds of things, if anything, his eleven-year-old other self would try in order to send himself back. The fate of the world, he realized, was temporarily out of his hands. All he could do was avoid making things unpleasant on a personal level in this timeline, and he fully intended to do so.

“Delta! Hello? What was that!? Are you okay?” Phi’s grip on his shoulder was far too tight for comfort, and the emotion in her voice quickly exhausted him.

He tried not to hesitate in his reply. “Yes, I’m all right. Could you let go of me, please?”

Sigma frowned. “Are you sure you’re okay? You just… fell over. We could drive you to the hospital again if you need it.”

“How’s your head?” Phi said quietly, eyeing him with concern and slight suspicion. Right. She’d just had that conversation about SHIFTing last night. He wondered if his younger self had been lying for her sake, or if he really didn’t know he was at risk.

“Everyone, really, I’m fine. Phi, my head doesn’t hurt at all,” he lied, “and I’m still here. Still me. I told you I can’t SHIFT. Can you let go of me now?”

She stared at him for what felt like forever before she finally let go. “Okay. Well, I think it’s almost time for me to leave for school, and, y’know, we have to go together. Grab your homework and your science textbook and stuff.”

“Right.” Delta struggled to his feet, then did a quick check to see if Phi knew where he was keeping those things. She had seen him put them into his backpack the night before. _Nice try,_ he thought. “Wait. Phi, I already have everything packed. I only have to grab a jacket on my way out.”

“Oh,” she huffed, visibly relieved but still not fully convinced. “That’s good.”

“Have you… had breakfast yet?”

“There’s not enough time. I just remembered I have to be there super-early for some stupid project thing we’re doing in history. There's free food in the MPR, though, so I won’t starve or anything.”

“Then shall we?” He gestured towards the door.

“Hold on, I gotta get my shoes on. You can start walking. I’ll catch up in a sec.”

“Sure. Mom, Dad, am I forgetting anything? Everything is still a little foggy on my end.”

Diana shook her head, giving him the same look that Phi had, and Sigma patted him cautiously on the back. “You’re all good. Have a nice day at school, okay? You too, Phi. Try not to fall behind.”

“You say that, like, every day, Dad. I won’t.”

Delta slipped on a jacket without thinking and headed out the door, trying to appear enthusiastic despite his severe lack of energy. “See you after school, everyone.”

“Hey--!” Phi called after him. “That’s my… favorite coat.”

The family exchanged glances as they heard the back gate swing open and closed. Delta had already left. And something was definitely wrong.


	2. [2028] Onward

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The ten participants of the Decision Game have plans to make and places to go. Maybe later it'll be easier for them all to get along with their newest party member.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so yeah the ordinary human half of q-team might be separating themselves from the group as soon as its safe for them but until then eric is just going to give everyone a hard time

Delta’s head was spinning fast enough to put a tornado to shame. There were so many things to worry about, so many reasons to be afraid, that he didn’t even know where to begin the downward spiral he knew his thoughts were heading for. Well, no. One thing in particular stood out above the rest; most of everything, he feared for his sister’s safety. Sigma and Diana had both had their share of experience dealing with his older self, so they might know what to do, but Phi? All she had were the stories she’d been told and the scars on their parents’ wrists where the bracelets used to be. She couldn’t know who he was or exactly what he was like. He could only hope that his family would discover what had happened before she found out the hard way. It tortured him to envision what kind of things he would be able to do to her, but he just couldn’t stop himself. Things had obviously been set up for the two of them to die soon after being born; her existence itself was an unwanted variable in his equation, and killing her would be so easy. He could make it look like an accident. He could make it look like a suicide even with a school full of witnesses. He could make it quick or agonizingly slow, and there would be nothing she could do but sit helplessly by like a passenger in her own tiny body. The thought of it alone was enough to make his throat tighten until it shut. If he ever got back, and it turned out she was dead…

“Hey, kid… are you going to be okay?” Carlos’s voice brought him mercifully back to the present. Nothing about him showed any sign of the hostility that Delta had been so sure he would harbor; his stance was a little tense yet nonthreatening, and his bright green gaze held nothing but pity. Trying to make sense of it just made the boy dizzier.

“Yeah, I guess I’m… no. No, I’m not. I’m… my family’s in danger, Carlos! He’s there… he’s there with them! I-in my body! In my timeline! What if they don’t know it’s him, and they think it’s me, and he-- he-- _fuck!_ ” Delta buried his head in the sun-warmed fabric of his sweater, still stubbornly refusing to cry but near the point of bursting with misery. He couldn’t bring himself to say what he was thinking. “You guys gotta help me. I can’t stay here. I have to SHIFT back as soon as possible, or they’re all gonna fucking die. I just _know_ it.”

“Um, actually…” The orb-headed child that he could only assume was Sean raised his hand with a noticeable degree of uncertainty. “There’s not really any way to… know that for sure.”

“What do you mean? Of course they’re gonna die!”

“I mean, it just seems kind of unlikely that…”

“Unlikely isn’t good enough, though! They could still be in danger! Don’t you--”

“Guys.” Phi cut him off, having grasped the meaning behind Sean’s contribution. “Anyone here have any memories of a timeline where Sigma and Diana escaped with the kids?”

Not one person responded.

“That’s what I thought. So, Delta, either you have some other powers you haven’t told us about yet, or you’re just running on anxiety and a hunch here. Which one is it?”

He didn’t need to answer her. His silence was all the response she needed. She was right, but that was nothing new to him. Phi always ended up being right about things like this. Somehow, even though her words were laced with bitterness and resentment, hearing her talk was soothing to him; she reminded him so much of her other self that he almost wanted to pretend she was, just to fool himself for a few seconds into thinking everything was okay. He felt himself starting to tear up again, but he inhaled deeply and rubbed his eyes dry before he made an even bigger idiot of himself.

“Look, as huge a piece of shit as that guy is, whatever happens after this whole thing in your timeline doesn’t affect the outcome he was working towards. He doesn’t have any reason to hurt us there. In fact, he actually has a good reason not to.”

“A reason not to?” Having calmed down considerably, he let himself slouch over a little and looked up at his sister.

“He’s not supposed to interfere with that timeline at all after the Decision Game.”

“Huh?”

“Right,” Sigma interjected. “I know what you mean. Remember, Diana? Akane? In that timeline, Q-Team was executed in the vote. He was supposed to be dead.”

Sean nodded, nervously shifting his weight from side to side. “I remember, too. He had a collar on just like the rest of us. And even if he didn’t… those things were explosive. He still would’ve been killed because of how close by he was.”

“Exactly. And he’s a big believer in the butterfly effect, so unless he wants to risk a repeat of the whole snail incident –” Phi took a moment to cast an accusatory glance at Mira – “he’s not going to try anything funny. If I had to guess, he probably wants to get back to his own timeline as much as you do. He could have SHIFTed when Eric-- well, when he made Eric shoot him if that was really what he wanted, right? He’s shown before that he’s okay with dying if he has to.”

“But what if he… planned for this? Hasn’t he done more confusing things before?”

There was another uncomfortable pause in the conversation. Mira was the only one who didn’t look like she’d just seen a ghost; she had tuned out completely and moved on to finger-combing her tangled hair, bored to the point of annoyance. Next to her, Eric didn’t seem to be taking all this new information nearly as well. His eyes traveled wildly from person to person, and he was shaking as he tried to restrain himself from having yet another outburst. “So… he could be just…? Wh-what are we going to do now? We’re not taking him with us, are we? ‘Cause I sure as hell don’t want to be anywhere near this guy. Even if he really is a different person. He… he could fucking kill us all if he wanted to.” He shot a pointed death glare at Delta, who winced instinctively and put his hands up in a universal gesture of ‘please just chill, I’m not going to hurt you’.

Carlos shook his head. “I’m open to other ideas, but I think we should take him with us.” Some of the group didn’t seem to like that idea very much, so he went on to explain. “He can’t SHIFT on his own, right? He’s told us that.” There were a few nods, most of them slow and skeptical. “So if this kid ever wants to get back to his own timeline, he’s going to have to be around a bunch of SHIFTers. And where else is he going to find this many in one place?”

“It’s a nice concept,” Phi countered, “but if it works and he does SHIFT back, what then? What if we’re not in a place where we can get away easily? We’ll be stuck with _our_ Delta. And it’s like Sean said – maybe that’s exactly what he wants to happen.”

“Hey, uh… can you help me up?” Delta held his arm out to Carlos, who took it and held it still as the boy slowly stood. “Thanks. Guys, I, um… normally I wouldn’t say this, ‘cause, you know, it’s a little awkward just being here… and sad… but Carlos is right about you all probably being my only way back. I don’t have to come with you, though! I just have to put myself in… life-threatening danger. While you’re around. That should do it, right? Just find some train tracks to put me on, so I can still jump out of the way if it doesn’t work.”

“Why don’t you try shooting him again, Carlos?” Junpei suggested, his tone drier than the cracked clay beneath the thin layer of sand. “That might work.”

Akane quieted him with a hand on his shoulder, giving him a disarming half-smile before making her own suggestion. “If it’s a controlled situation, where he knows he’s not in any danger, it won’t work. Well, it might, but the chances are a lot lower. And if our Delta’s body dies, he’ll be stuck in this one’s timeline… but more importantly, his family’s going to be stuck with him. We should take him so that we can put him in danger but still keep an eye on him just in case something goes wrong. If it works, then… we’ll figure out what to do from there. There’s nine of us and one of him, and he can’t control Sean because Mind Hacking doesn’t work on robots like him. Sean, you’ll hold him down, right?”

“Right!”

“So that’s it? We’re really doing this?” Eric asked incredulously. “Don’t any of you see any problem with keeping him around?”

“You don’t have to worry about yourself, Eric. Or your… girlfriend,” Delta added before Eric could bring her up, “because… well… no offense, but I wouldn’t feel too safe hanging out with you. You can be pretty… trigger-happy when you get scared, and Mira is… well, she’s Mira. So I’ll keep my distance.”

“But you don’t have to be near me to kill me!”

Delta sighed, frustrated with Eric but grateful that nobody else was trying to pile on anymore. “Listen. Sean, hey, if I use my powers to hurt anyone, you can… I dunno, beat me up or something. I’m not that strong yet anyway. Here, let me… Carlos, can you try moving your other arm? Lift it up as far as you can.”

Under everyone’s close watch, Carlos bemusedly played along. His arm only went up about halfway, and it vibrated a little from strain, but it was plain to see that it had moved. “Huh. It’s a little hard, but I can do it.”

“You see? I can’t-- ow, my head. Fuck.” Delta almost collapsed again, groaning in pain, and Carlos’s arm shot straight up. “Ow. Okay. I’m okay. Like I was saying, I can’t control him too well when he’s resisting, and we’re right next to each other, so you don’t have much to be afraid of from me.”

If he focused, he could hear Eric arguing with himself inside his head, but he didn’t need to do that to see how upset he was. “Fine...” the man growled, “but I swear, if you do _anything_ \--!”

“I know, I know! I’m not gonna!”

“Okay, everyone! Let’s all take deep breaths and stay calm.” After making sure Delta could stand on his own, Carlos let go of his wrist and stepped up to address his friends. “We’ll figure out where we’re going to go first, then we can… deal with the personal stuff. And for the kid’s sake, let’s try not to think too much about what happened. He doesn’t need to go through that again.”

“It’s okay, actually. I… already got a pretty good idea from my parents. And seeing you all here… that was… enough. It’s a little more painful now, but I’ll try to hold myself together. Thanks, Carlos.”

“Are you sure you’ll be fine?”

Delta swallowed his emotions once again and nodded firmly. “I’m sure. I think I know where to go now, too.”

“You do?”

“Yep.” He pointed to the broad tire tracks some distance behind him; while he knew they must have been left there intentionally, at least they would probably lead to something useful. That or certain death, but all things considered, they were likely to be the survivors’ best chance at making progress. He couldn’t afford to have any doubts. “There,” he said with false conviction. “Let’s follow those.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> next chapter: school shenanigans and severe suffering in 2040!!
> 
> edit: mostly just suffering


	3. [2040] Adjustments

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Phi knows her brother far too well to be fooled by his older self's flimsy disguise. She won't be sleeping for a while now.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so im???? thinking ill just do things like alternating between timelines until they finally intersect again idk
> 
> also Fun Fact i dont have much but a basic plot skeleton so far so if yall have suggestions?? hell yeah ykno what i mean

That morning, the Klims would find, had marked the end of a long period of normalcy. Phi tried to keep a close eye on her brother at school all day, but he put enough effort into dodging her that the two never had the chance to speak even during lunch hour. It was vexing to no end; he’d had a reason for shutting her out last time he’d done something like this, and it was evident then that he was very upset, but not once during the day did she see him showing any sign of emotion. Knowing him, and knowing how expressive he could be, either he was just trying to be difficult for no good cause at all, or – and this was far more likely – there really was something wrong with him, and it ran far deeper than she had allowed herself to fear. It grew harder as the day went on to shake off the dread that rendered her hands ice cold and her breath shallow. Delta wasn’t okay. He couldn’t be. There had to be some reason for his behavior.

She was waiting to confront him when classes finally ended. The two of them were expected to walk home together every day, and there was no way he could get around that without their parents’ knowledge. He seemed to know it, too, because he wasted no time in meeting her. A sudden chill shot through her body when he greeted her with nothing more than a smile that she knew wasn’t genuine and an uncharacteristically polite ‘hello’. It felt as if the boy standing before her was an entirely different person then the one that had woken her up late that morning. Still, she said ‘hey’ back and walked alongside him as if nothing was wrong; if he really was someone else – if something had gone awry and he had somehow SHIFTed – then she didn’t want him to have his guard up when she started asking questions.

“It’s pointless, you know.”

“Huh?” Her train of thought brought to a halt, she turned her head to face him. “What? What’d you say?”

“You’re trying to make me more relaxed by pretending you aren’t worried about me at all. It won’t work. Even if I couldn’t read your mind, everything you’re feeling right now is shown quite plainly on your face. But I appreciate the effort.”

She felt another chill travel down her spine, and promptly she found herself looking down at the cracks in the sidewalk. “Jeez. Way to show off,” she muttered, just loud enough for him to hear. “What’s going on with you? You’ve been acting weird ever since you fell out of your chair this morning. Like… you’ve just been giving off this air of… like you’re somewhere else really far away, and walking really slowly, and that kind of thing. And you’ve definitely been avoiding me. I know that for sure, ‘cause we have three classes together, and we always run into each other on the way, but I didn’t see you in the hallways at all. So, is… something wrong?”

There was a tangible pause in the conversation as Delta went through her memories again, annoyed at himself for slipping back into the persona he’d hid behind at the shelter. He’d blow his cover too quickly acting like that. “Um, no. I’m sorry I made you worry. I didn’t mean to. I’m… doing well enough, but I don’t really… I think I hit my head in the wrong place. It’s hard to remember some of the stuff that I should probably know. I didn’t want you to be too concerned for me, that’s all.”

“Avoiding me on purpose isn’t going to make me be anything _but_ too concerned for you. And you should know that,” she said. It was clear that he’d only made her more suspicious.

“I know that? Okay, uh, if you say so.”

‘If you say so’? Phi didn’t like the sound of that. She was starting to drift away from him as they walked, looking more nervous with every word he said. “Oh. And another thing. Just now, as soon as I said you were acting weird, you started acting… less weird. Like a switch turned off or something. Like you’re… pretending. A-are you absolutely, _positively_ sure--”

“Are we still on this? I didn’t SHIFT this morning. I couldn’t have! I can keep saying it until I’m blue in the face, okay? I wouldn’t lie to you about that.”

“But if you’re not _you_ , then maybe you _would_ lie to me about it.”

He groaned. “If you’re just not going to believe me no matter what I say, why should I bother?”

“It’s not like that and you know it. I want to trust you. We’re twins, right? It just seems like… after last night and everything, too… I mean, all the signs are there. You just collapsed out of the blue, you looked like you were in pain when you woke up even though you said you weren’t, you didn’t remember that the blue jacket was mine, and you’ve been acting like a totally different person until just now! That, and… you’ve basically been reading my mind nonstop.” She scanned every inch of her brother’s face as she spoke, and at her last statement, she saw him twitch. It took a few seconds for him to reply. That vague feeling of dread that had been with her all day grew ever more present in her lungs and in her stomach.

“Seriously?” His voice was quiet. “You can tell when I do that?”

That was it. The two of them had known each other and lived together their entire lives; if he was who he said he was, he wouldn’t have fallen for that bluff. Phi shook her head, starting to feel light with fear. “No. I can’t. But that reaction tells me I was right! And the Delta I know promised me he wouldn’t invade my privacy like that unless he _had_ to, for my sake! So… s-so who are you, really!? You’re not...” From the other side of the path, she gripped her own sides as she watched to see if he’d confirm her final frightening hypothesis. “Zero… are you?”

The tiny spark of recognition in his eyes, the sharp breath in through his barely open mouth, those little clues were all that she needed to see. Before he could even start to reply, she bolted for home as fast as she could. She didn’t get far. Her shaky legs moved on their own and threw her off balance, sending her tumbling into a nearby patch of clovers, and when she looked up, there was Delta, standing over her defenseless form with a frown on his face and his arms crossed.

The girl fought against his control as if her life depended on it, but it was no use. She couldn’t move. “What are you doing!?” she shrieked, hoping against hope that someone would hear. “What are you going to _do_ to me, you asshole!?”

“Phi…”

“Let go of me! Now!”

“Phi.”

“No! Let go! How can-- how can you--!?”

“ _Phi!_ ” His tone had sharpened to a degree that she’d never heard from him before. The start it gave her was enough to make her quiet. “Listen to me.”

Having no other options, she nodded without making even the slightest noise and took slow, deliberate breaths to calm herself down.

“I don’t want to be here,” he began, sitting down in the grass beside her, “despite what you may think. I didn’t want to SHIFT at all, let alone to this particular timeline. In fact, I was not aware that this timeline even existed.”

“Th-then why--!?”

“It was an _accident_ , Phi.”

“Why did you try to hide it? Why would you need to?”

He rested a hand on her upper arm, but quickly withdrew it when she flinched. “It’s obvious. Look at yourself. You’re scared out of your wits.” Worry – not anger or mocking amusement, to Phi’s further surprise – had edged its way into his voice. “I know for a fact that you don’t have any memories of the Decision Game, yet you’re terrified. Do you really want your parents, who know me well and have endured that pain at my hands, to know that I’ve inexplicably swapped places with their son? They already have enough stress in their lives. That’s why I tried to hide it. And I'll continue trying until I wake up and find myself back in my own body.”

“But… that doesn’t make any sense.” She bit her lip, trying to hold back the tears that were streaming sideways down her face. “I thought you… don’t you _like_ seeing other people in pain?”

“What gave you that idea?”

“What do you mean, what--? You’re… Zero.”

“So was your father at one point. Akane, too.”

“What?”

“Not for my Game, mind you, but each for their own. They’re all just links in a paradox that cannot ever be broken.” She still had that same look of puzzled disbelief, so Delta went on. “Time is a complicated thing. Perhaps you’ll learn when you’re older. For your sake, though, I hope you won’t.”

“Wait, but Dad…?”

“You can ask him about his adventures on the moon, all right? It’s not my story to tell. Just be warned that he might not like talking about it. Oh, and… you should be able to move again now.”

It was true that Phi could move freely, but she didn’t want to get up. She didn’t have the energy. She hugged her knees to her chest and struggled to make sense of everything she’d seen and heard. Nothing worked. Nothing made sense. Sitting down next to her, in her twin brother’s body, was the source of her parents’ trauma, the fuel on which her worst nightmares subsisted. He wasn’t exactly like she had imagined, but all the same, just being near him made her want to throw up. Even if he’d been telling the truth… but really, was he? Was he really just trying to protect her? To protect their parents? Was that just a lie underneath a lie, fabricated to keep up some semblance of a cover for his true purpose here? She didn’t know what to believe, because to her all of it was so confusing that it might as well have been spoken in a foreign language. She didn’t want her parents to suffer, but she didn’t know if she could stand being the only one who knew her brother had SHIFTed away. With all her heart, she wanted to believe he was safe, and that she and her parents would be, too, but her ever-active imagination insisted they weren’t. Nothing was okay, it told her, and nobody was safe, and there was not a shred of evidence that said otherwise.

“Your head is spinning,” Delta observed. “It’s understandable. I suggest thinking about something else, though; worrying won’t do much to better either of our situations.”

Of course, she didn’t listen to a single word he said. How could she? He could be planning to kill her as they spoke. He could be planning to kill them all.

“I’m not.”

“Stop it, asshole. Get out of my fucking head.”

“This might come as a bit of a shock to you, but I do have an actual name – and no, it isn't Zero.” He stood, still staring impassively down at her, and bent at the waist to offer her a hand. “We’d best get home. We’re running late; our parents must be worried about us.”

She gave him a long, defiant glare and made a point of getting up on her own, but the way her knees quivered betrayed the fear she was doing her best to hide. “Sure. But don’t you dare come any closer to me.”

“You didn’t even have to ask.”

Ironically, and possibly just to spite them, the sun finally began to show its cheerful face while the twins walked home in silence. The oblivious birds sang their songs, and a crisp winter breeze softly stirred the needles of the evergreen trees. To everyone else, the afternoon must have looked like it was going to be beautiful, but the warmth Phi had felt that morning had long since left her. What was left of her optimism had leaked out through her puffy eyes. It was all she could do to keep her futile anger and paranoia from eating her alive as Delta strolled along behind her, his gaze never leaving her back, and it felt horrifically surreal to think that he might never be back to normal. Still, she couldn’t stay in denial forever.

Phi no longer felt like this was going to be a nice day.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> tbh i hope the next pair of chapters turn out better


	4. [2028] Progress

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's hard to carry on without the element of certainty.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> aaaaaAAAAAAAAAA I FORGOT TO PUT SOME THINGS IN AND THERE WAS A GLARING CONTINUITY ERROR BUT I PUT THE THINGS IN AND IT SHOULD MAKE MORE SENSE N

“Look, everyone! Over there! That’s gotta be a town, isn’t it?” Sean’s sudden, excited exclamation quieted the survivors’ halfhearted chatter, bringing a halt to their movements and pointing their attention in the direction of his extended index finger. They had been following the tire tracks for at least a few miles now, and everybody was doing decently at hiding their exhaustion for each other’s sakes, but their eagerness to find civilization needed not be concealed; upon hearing the android’s announcement, all of them except Mira were visibly more energetic as they squinted to see the dark mass of shapes on the horizon.

Carlos smiled widely at his friends, holding himself upright with considerable ease for someone with 140-some pounds of extra weight on his arm. Delta felt a little guilty about having to use him as a crutch, but between that and tripping every five seconds due to miscalculated steps, he didn’t want to inconvenience the others any more than he already had. “Well, would you look at that,” remarked the firefighter. “Guess he was trying to help us out after all.”

“It could… still be a trap, though, right?” Diana wondered aloud, more to herself than anyone else.

“Hmm.” Sigma inspected the distant sight as best he could, using his hand to shield his eyes from the sun. “Pretty elaborate trap, if that’s the case – not to mention counterproductive. I still think we should go see what’s over there. Then… we can split up and let each other know what we find. How’s that sound?”

There were no objections, and nobody had anything else to offer, so the group regathered their energy and started walking along the tracks again. They arrived at the unfamiliar place – it had indeed turned out to be a town, or at least some kind of residential area – about half an hour later, and as they looked around at the smoothly paved roads and various types of plants in man-made holes filled with soil, they all had the same pleasant feeling that they were going to be safe for the time being. Still, Carlos warned everybody not to get too comfortable. “We still don’t know what Zero was expecting us to do here. Speaking of which… Delta, are you doing okay there? You look awful.”

Delta wasn’t thrilled with the use of that segway, but he kept it to himself. “Yeah, I’m okay, I guess. My head still feels like it’s gonna…” He cut himself off; ‘blow up’ would have been a poor choice of words, given that some of the others could vividly remember meeting their end that way. “I, um… yeah. It hurts a lot. And I’m kinda dizzy. But I’ll get better, I think.”

“Huh. Maybe it’s the heat. Aren’t you a little warm? Wearing that?”

His free hand moved to the collar of his sweater. Remarkably, the thought hadn’t even crossed his mind. He felt fine. Maybe his older self just got cold really easily. “Um… actually, no--”

“So, we’re… splitting up now, right, Carlos?” Akane interjected. “Are we going to be in the same teams as before?”

Carlos turned to her and scratched his head. “That’s what I was thinking.”

Everyone looked around warily at each other. Q-Team didn’t look all too happy about that idea – well, more accurately, Eric and Delta didn’t look too happy about it, and the former had no diffidence about voicing his concerns. “Exactly the same? No. Not happening. I’m not going with _him_ ,” he stated angrily, pointing at his former ‘teammate’.

“And I’m not going with the rest of Q-Team. Sean’s the only one I’d feel safe with out of those three, and besides, they’re all non-Espers. So if we get separated, and one of us gets put in danger that I can’t Mind Hack my way out of…”

“... they’ll probably just die.” Sean finished. “So which team’s gonna take him?”

Sigma and Diana made nervous eye contact, and Diana inhaled as if she were about to say something, but decided against it. Akane seemed similarly hesitant. Ever the optimistic one, and much to the chagrin of his teammates, Carlos spoke up again. “I wasn’t really counting Delta when I said that. C-Team can take him. It won’t be as… awkward that way, and I don’t mind helping him get around. You guys okay with that?”

The disdainful look on Junpei’s face made it crystal-clear that he was not okay with that, but he couldn’t be bothered to put up a fight, especially not after walking under the hot Nevada sun for a few hours straight. He looked expectantly at Akane, hoping that she’d disagree on behalf of both of them. To his further exasperation, though, all she did was shrug. “I guess.”

“Then let’s go. We’ll look around nearby and try to find help. D-Team, uh… let’s see. How about you get a feel of where everything is around here? You got a decent sense of direction?” Phi gave him a distracted thumbs-up, so he continued. “And Q-Team – minus Q, I mean – you can stay and keep lookout. Zero could’ve sent someone to meet us here, so be ready. Don’t… murder each other while we’re gone or anything. And if someone shows up, tell them to wait for the rest of us.”

Mira raised an eyebrow. “Wow, you really don’t trust me, huh, Carlos?”

“Well, you _are_ a serial killer.” He shrugged. “Akane, Junpei, Delta, you all ready to go?” Each of them nodded in turn as he glanced at them for confirmation. “Everyone else? Questions? Concerns?” Silence. “Okay. We’ll meet you back here as soon as we can.”

 

* * *

 

After a bit of wandering around, the group of four finally managed to get downtown – or, at least, somewhere that looked like it could be. There were shops and office buildings lining the sides of the road, and most of the people they saw carried themselves with purpose, as if they had places to be and important things to do. It wasn’t hard at all to flag someone down for directions to the nearest police station, given how out-of-place they looked; covered in sand, sweat, and desert dust, they stuck out like a sore thumb among the relatively well-kept locals. They found a middle-aged couple who was more than happy to take them personally to where they had to be, and as they engaged in cordial conversation on their four-block stroll, they managed to fabricate a backstory on the fly without a great deal of difficulty. According to Akane, they belonged to a tour group that had somehow gotten separated and lost their guide. There were ten of them in total. The visible marks on their wrists were from bug bites, and the wristbands they’d had to wear for the tour had agitated them in the same places; they couldn’t think of a good reason why the “old man” didn’t have any trace of them, but luckily the couple didn’t press him about it.

They collectively exhaled in relief when the station came into view, and their pace quickened. It seemed like an unassuming place, with little bells attached to the door and a woman at the front desk with a genuinely sunny expression on her face that quickly turned to concern and pity at the sight of the weary survivors. “What can I help you with? Are you okay? Do you need me to call in an ambulance?”

“No, we’ll be fine,” Carlos replied. “Do you have water?”

“Of course!” The woman stood and hurriedly went off, then returned about a minute later with four plastic cups of cold water, which the group gratefully accepted.

After she finished her cup, Akane repeated the story she’d told the couple that brought them there. “Um, so… we got separated from a pretty big tour group, and we’ve been wandering for a really long time. We’d like to find our homes and… maybe get a ride, if that’s possible tonight.”

“And I need to find my sister and let her know I’m okay,” added Carlos.

“Oh, well, that’s… I don’t think we have any vehicles available at the moment, but if you’d like to make a call, you can do that from here.”

“We’d love that. Thank you.”

Carlos was the first to use the station’s phone. He’d memorized the number of the hospital where Maria was staying. She couldn’t be reached at the moment, said the man on the other end, but he could leave a message to pass on to her. He did, and he kept it brief – it wasn’t much more than a short reminder that he loved her and he’d be on his way to visit her soon – yet his voice was shaking by the time he hung up. He was so happy to hear that she was still clinging to life, that he wasn’t too late yet to save her. His teammates were happy for him, too.

With a deep breath, he passed the phone to Junpei, who passed it to Akane right away, stating that he didn’t really have anyone urgently important to call and that she ought to call her brother and tell him what happened. Akane sighed, staring with rapt attention at absolutely nothing at all. “He knows. We’ve been communicating through the morphogenetic field, and he’s waiting at home because I told him it was too dangerous to try getting into the shelter.”

“Wait, he is? Really?” Junpei was actually surprised; being comparatively weak as Espers go, he’d forgotten all about that whole telepathy thing they could do. “So can you tell him to come pick us up?”

“I already did, and he says he’ll be here with a van big enough for all of us first thing in the morning.”

“Then why’d you ask if they could give us a ride?”

“Tonight. I asked if they could give us a ride _tonight_. The sooner we get home, the better… right?”

“Right!” Carlos agreed without hesitation.

The door swung open again, accompanied by the tinkling of bells and, to everyone’s astonishment, an all-too-familiar voice. “Oh, hey, C-Team. Delta.”

“Mira? What the hell are you doing here? Where’s Sean and Eric?” Junpei said aloud what they were all thinking.

“Back where they’re supposed to be. I told them I was going to go find a bathroom.”

“Why?”

“I’m turning myself in,” she said with a bit of a tired laugh. The officer behind the desk suddenly seemed a lot more tense. “You think I’d let them know that? Eric would try everything in his power to stop me.”

“They’re gonna find out.”

“I know. But they can’t really stop me once I’ve already done it.”

“Ma’am?” The officer was standing now. “What would you like to turn yourself in for, exactly?”

Mira turned to her and smiled. “Well…”

 

* * *

 

Mira’s little confession, as casually as it had been delivered, had caused a pretty big scene at the station. The group of four had to get out of that area as quickly as they could. By the time they reached the other teams at their starting point, the sun was already starting to go away. They must have arrived at that town later than they had thought.

“Have you seen Mira?” Naturally, that was the first thing out of Eric’s mouth. “You were out there, right? Did you see her?”

Junpei was about to tell him what happened, but he found himself covering his own mouth. Getting the hint, he scowled irritably at Delta and muttered something along the lines of “you could have just told me not to say anything, you know”.

“He’s right in front of us,” he hissed back. “I can’t just say something like that.”

“What? What can’t you say? What happened to Mira!?”

Delta groaned weakly, as if to say “I told you so”, and nudged Carlos with his elbow. “You tell him. He won’t believe me.”

“She, um…” Feeling a bit put-on-the-spot, Carlos glanced around at his teammates, then finally at Eric. “We were at the police station, making some calls, and then she came and… turned herself in.”

“What!?”

“She said she couldn’t have told you, or you would’ve tried to stop her.”

“Damn right I would have stopped her! I-- she--” Eric stammered, his hands shaking. He whirled around and ran off in the direction that the four had come from. Sean started to run too, calling after him and telling him to wait, but he stopped after a few paces, realizing that it was probably pointless.

“Great. Well, um, we’ve lost half of Q-Team now. Thanks, Junpei,” Delta said wearily.

“Thanks, yourself. You’re the one who said something.”

“But you were _going_ to.”

“Is Eric going to be okay?” Diana cut in. “He’s… going to get himself in trouble, isn’t he?”

There were scattered and unhappy “yeah”s and “probably”s from the whole group. Sean walked back towards the others and sat down on a nearby wooden bench, looking a little put out. “I hope he doesn’t get arrested too.”

“Things will turn out fine,” said Sigma in an effort to sound reassuring, though his tone made obvious his own unease. “We can check on him at the station if we have to. But I think we should work out a place to stay the night first. It’s getting a little late.”

“Oh, yeah. We can celebrate the new year together. Whoopee, right? What a holiday,” deadpanned Phi.

Sigma chuckled nervously. “I mean, at least this year you’ll get to spend it with your family!” That did nothing to lighten the mood.

“Yeah, no offense, but this hasn’t exactly been a trip to Disneyland.”

“Anyway,” said Diana, putting an arm around her daughter, “we did find a motel. We can show you all the way there whenever you’re ready.”

Nobody looked ready, but everyone did look like they were trying hard to fake it. Junpei forced a smile. “You all planning to stay up and watch the clock strike midnight?”

“I don’t think we’ll have a choice,” Phi huffed. “Who’s gonna be able to sleep after that whole ordeal? Well… _he_ might. He didn’t have to go through it.” She narrowed her eyes pointedly at her brother, who bit his lip and said nothing in response; with all their memories dancing around in his head at once, he knew he wouldn’t even have to sleep to be visited by relentless nightmares. His self-directed anger blended with confusion at her sudden change of attitude. Hadn't she been perfectly fine with him earlier?

Carlos seemed to sense his distress. “Let’s leave the kid alone. He’s gone through a lot today.”

“Oh, _he’s_ gone through a lot, huh? Yeah, sure. I've been thinking, you know. All day. We don’t even know if he’s telling the truth. We can't know. We might think we've got it figured out, but… you know how goddamn unpredictable he can be. He could just be making all this up for some reason we can't comprehend.”

“Can’t we give him the benefit of the doubt?”

“Excuse me?” Phi’s stoic expression faded quickly at that, and now she wore a look of utter disgust. “Carlos, if he's lying… he… even if he's not. He killed us. All of us. You, me, my parents… in fact, he’s killed six billion people, remember? Like, directly causing the end of the entire world? And it’s not like he hasn’t lied to us about anything before. So yeah, sorry if I’m having a bit of a hard time giving him the benefit of the doubt.”

“I’m right here,” Delta whispered, his face hot and his eyes downcast. Nobody seemed to hear. Phi was riling herself up with her talk, and she had a lot of things to say.

“Don’t you realize he’s…? Ugh. You know what? You can keep on being all buddy-buddy with him. I don’t care. But I've decided I want _nothing_ to do with--”

“I’m. Right. _Here!_ ”

There was an uncomfortable hiatus in the conversation, a pause that felt like it should have been quickly brought to an end, and it went unbroken for the longest time; the steadily thickening tension in the air felt dense enough to suffocate them all.

Sean was the first to speak up. “I… I guess this is going to be a long night.”

He couldn’t have possibly made a more drastic understatement.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this took me longer than it should have but Hey,


End file.
